This week I’m tackling another frequently-missed question from the The Official ACT Prep Guide, aka the “Red Book.” (I’m looking at you, Practice Test 1, English Question 57, Page 160!)

Check out the video for why this punctuation question is a bit tricky and for helpful tips on semicolons and commas on the test!

Here’s the sentence in question:

But in pinball, you have three factors to consider: you, the machine, and chance, which is sometimes your enemy sometimes your ally.

NO CHANGE

enemy,

enemy;

enemy, and,

This sentence is a little more sophisticated in its phrasing than most of the sentences on the ACT English test, which is why it might catch you off guard.

Here we have a rather elegant pairing of two opposite phrases: “sometimes your enemy” and “sometimes your ally,” which are modifying the word “chance.”

Because ACT test-takers are so accustomed to attacking comma splices, it’s really easy to slip up here and think answer choice B is a comma splice. A comma splice, as you may remember is when a writer incorrectly joins together two complete sentences with only a comma. It’s a bad grammar mistake that the ACT tests over and over again.

But this case is actually not a comma splice. “Sometimes your enemy” and “sometimes your ally” are not complete sentences, so it would not be an error to put just a comma between the phrases. Because they are not complete sentences that can stand alone, we also cannot use a ; or a “, and” to join them (making C and D incorrect).

But we DO need a break between the two phrases; we don’t want to just run them together as answer choice A does. Therefore, this question is an excellent example of how we use commas to create pauses. We need a pause here, so we need a comma, and our answer is B, “enemy,”.

About Kristin Fracchia

Dr. Kristin Fracchia makes sure Magoosh's sites are full of awesome, free resources that can be found by students prepping for standardized tests. With a PhD from UC Irvine and degrees in Education and English, she’s been working in education since 2004 and has helped students prepare for standardized tests, as well as college and graduate school admissions, since 2007. She enjoys the agony and bliss of trail running, backpacking, hot yoga, and esoteric knowledge.

Leave a Reply

Magoosh blog comment policy: To create the best experience for our readers, we will approve and respond to comments that are relevant to the article, general enough to be helpful to other students, concise, and well-written! :) If your comment was not approved, it likely did not adhere to these guidelines. If you are a Premium Magoosh student and would like more personalized service, you can use the Help tab on the Magoosh dashboard. Thanks!

Question of the Day: ACT Question of the Day

The total cost to rent a tour bus for a day is the same for any party over fifteen. If the cost is $720 for a group of sixteen, how much less would a group of twenty-four riders have to pay per person than a group of sixteen?

Magoosh SAT

Magoosh ACT

Company

Follow Magoosh

SAT® is a registered trademark of the College Board®. The College Board® does not endorse, nor is it affiliated in any way with the owner or any content of this web site. ACT® is a registered trademark of the ACT, Inc.®. The ACT Inc.® does not endorse, nor is it affiliated in any way with the owner or any content of this web site. View our privacy policy.